Asia - Fixed Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

Asia - Fixed Broadband Market - Statistics and Analyses

Asia’s fixed broadband market underpinned by the success of China’s fibre rollout

The state of the fixed broadband market in Asia is overwhelmingly a reflection of the extent to which individual countries have enabled, encouraged, or (in some cases) mandated the rollout of fibre infrastructure to support a policy of providing universal coverage. Depending on the level of urbanisation and the geographical challenges that different countries face with deploying physical infrastructure, some areas have been far more successful than others. China, Hong Kong, and South Korea stand out as examples of how a combination of effective government policy and a willingness on the part of the telcos to invest in fixed network capabilities can lead to strong adoption rates – albeit at a fraction of what has been achieved with mobile broadband. China boasts the largest number of (total) broadband connections in the world, and its large market means that nearly three quarters of all the fixed broadband connections in Asia are now found in that country alone!

At the other end of the spectrum are many of the countries in the Central Asia region, many of whom inherited under-developed networks and services from the former Soviet Union. With state-controlled, monopoly fixed network operators still the norm than the exception, fixed broadband is likely to forever remain a poor cousin to its mobile counterpart in that part of the world.